Antipas’ Covid-19 hope and prayer

Fungai Muderere Senior Sports Reporter
AFTER spending the last six weeks at his Harare home owing to the country’s Covid-19 lockdown, Chicken Inn head gaff er Joey Antipas has returned to Bulawayo to map the best way forward for the Gamecocks.

Covid-19 rules and regulations were relaxed to level two recently and this prompted Antipas to return to Bulawayo.

“I’m back in Bulawayo aft er spending six weeks of the lockdown in Harare. I have come to work on our best way forward. The players have been engaging in some individual training workouts which I must say were not that good,” said Antipas.

“However, we cannot ignore the fact that coronavirus is real. We cannot afford to take chances and as such I have come back to work to see how best we can move forward. We hope and pray that the powers that be can maybe allow players to at least train in groups.”

If given the green light, group training will involve non-contact workouts.

The Germany Bundesliga and state authorities recently allowed teams to train in small groups. Bayern Munich, Borussia Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg and other clubs conducted sessions in groups of five without any contact.

Spain also followed suit by allowing a maximum of six players on the field and 12 players in the facilities, while coaches are required to be at least four meters away.

Besides, it is recommended that footballers take a shower at home, not at the club’s facilities when they finish training.

Teams will have Covid-19 tests three times in 15 days before they resume group training.